The state's Child Support Enforcement Agency, often criticized for being unresponsive and inefficient, is being overhauled to address shortcomings and improve service. Child support agency
gets service overhaulIt was exempted from state budget cuts
to reorganize and upgrade its phonesBy Craig Gima
cgima@starbulletin.comThe agency, which collects support payments from noncustodial parents and disburses the money, has about 105,000 child-support cases and processes about $111 million in payments annually.
Last month, state Auditor Marion Higa released another in a series of critical reports on the agency's $46 million KEIKI computer system and its failure to improve services. But state Attorney General Mark Bennett and director Arnold Enoki say the agency is moving ahead with plans to improve customer service, replace its difficult-to-use automated phone system and hire more staff.
Bennett said the agency has received an exemption to Gov. Linda Lingle's 5 percent across-the-board budget cut and the state hiring freeze so it can fill vacant positions. But the agency's final budget is dependent on what happens in the Legislature.
Bennett and Enoki say improving the agency is a priority of the Attorney General's Office.
The agency is talking with the Hawaii Government Employees Association on a plan to restructure its Oahu office to improve customer service by creating three teams of caseworkers, investigators, payment officers and clerks who will handle cases and complaints within each team rather than having cases and complaints assigned to individual workers.
The reorganization started during the Cayetano administration and is continuing in the Lingle administration.
Senior management is being reorganized to create a formal position for someone in charge of training and another person in charge of meeting state and federal regulations.
Enoki also said he is also looking at rewriting the letters and forms that the agency sends out to make them friendlier and more oriented toward customer service.
"To the extent that they improve their service, that any of these things happen, I think that's wonderful," said attorney Francis O'Brien, who sued the agency for not processing payments quickly and to get a complete accounting of the money in agency accounts. "We've heard a lot of talk about what the agency will or won't do, but in terms of actual stuff that you see, it's a different matter."
Last October, a Circuit Court judge ordered the agency to come up with a detailed accounting of all uncashed checks and amounts unpaid because they were returned due to incorrect addresses.
Bennett said bids will be solicited to replace the agency's automated phone system at an estimated cost of about $300,000, as recommended by the auditor.
The original vendor for the 9-year-old phone system went out of business, making it impossible to update the system.
The phone system handles about 8,000 calls a week, and according to the state auditor, less than half of the callers are able to talk to a live person. Of those who do not get through, 80 percent are blocked because the lines are full. The other 20 percent abandon their calls before a customer service representative can answer. The average wait time is about 3 1/2 minutes.
Enoki said lifting the hiring freeze may enable him to have up to 10 people answering phones, up from three or four currently. Enoki said the agency is also working on developing a plan and establishing committees to improve its services.
He said the agency just received full certification from the federal government because it met performance goals for the KEIKI computer system. That certification means that the agency will not see a reduction in federal funding.
However, efforts to improve hardware on the KEIKI computer system and make better use of the information contained in the system may have to wait until after the phone system is replaced and the Oahu office is reorganized, Bennett said.
Child Support Enforcement Agency